Poem Films

The highs and lows of being in love. A teenage girl is left by her cello-playing boyfriend and her world temporarily falls apart.

Claire Climbs Everest was a commission from Alastair Cook of Filmpoem, to make a poetry film for one of The Poetry Society's commended poems in the National Poetry Competition 2016.

I set out to work to a loosely applied, more traditional, three-act structure in this poetry film, rather than a free-flowing, dream-like or conceptual narrative. I did not want to begin with Claire as already abandoned by her boyfriend but catch her still 'in' love - in a Chagall-esque scenario that I had wanted to use for some time, and was realised by the talented, multimedia editor Howard Vause. I also managed to use crosses as both symbolising love and error - another theme I had wanted to transfer from my print series to incorporate in poetry films. Love and error keep slipping and sliding and the cross bears a different meaning depending on your point of view.

As the ex-boyfriend in the poem was a cellist I took the opportunity to select different types of cello music to reflect the emotional structure, or perhaps make the structure - music is a big part of this poetry film, and also my work in general.

I am not only indebted to American poet Sam Harvey for such a subtle and finely crafted poem on such a raw subject, but the pace of Sam's voice really counterpoints what is happening on screen.